DUBBYstep

Diplo is the man.  Major Lazer is way too much fun.   These are the conclusions DUBBY has reached after their weekend down at Bonnaroo.

Skrillex was supposed to be the man of the festival in the EDM scene.  A set from 1:30-3:30 on Saturday night?  How could a fan not be excited?  We certainly were, but he failed to blow us away.  Yes, he played all of his top hits including a great remix of Nero’s ‘Promises,’ but he ended 15 minutes early and the sound on the Which Stage was a little off.

Big Gigantic was fantastic to kick off the festival on Thursday.  The Colorado duo was on point and closed with some of their new jams, all featuring a ton of dub.

However, Major Lazer was the best act of the weekend.  Philly P did a nice write up on the project a few days ago and they didn’t disappoint.  They brought the energy from the start and had the crowd jumping from the get go.  At one point they had the whole crowd take off their shirts, brought a ton of girls on stage and then asked for the crowd to take off their pants.  Very little of the crowd did as they were told, but it was still a ton of fun to say the least and it loosened everyone up.

This was the second straight festival that DUBBY saw Major Lazer (Snowball back in March) and the act was so much better down in Tennessee.  Don’t miss them if you have the chance to see them.

In the first installment of DUBBYstep’s experience of DEMF we primarily covered the Dirtybird after-party, as we did not attend the actual Movement Festival during the day.  However, day two began with butterflies in my stomach in anticipation of a lineup on Sunday ranging from new age dubstep sensation Zeds Dead , all the way to old school hip hop and rap legends Public Enemy, and back to Detroit local talent and artistic director as well as former co-creator of DEMF Carl Craig.  Sunday’s lineup for Movement was no doubt stacked at every one of the five stages creating some difficult decisions and sacrifices to make.

Upon arrival we were wisely informed to go to the Beatport Stage for DJ Heidi, who was raised in Windsor, Ontario, just across the bridge and in close proximity of Detroit techno and Chicago house, she truly soaked up those vibes growing up.  Her set was funky and sexy yet filled with fun energy all the way until she had the crowd go nuts for a Snoop Dogg track toward the end of her set.  We had to skip out on part of Heidi to catch the secretive duo Tiger & Woods, who spun some disco house funky hybrid sound that had everyone moving and smiling the way everyone at a daytime festival should be.  Keep an eye out for this duo in 2012.

Brace yourself for a lot of names as a result of way too much amazing music going on in too small of a time.  Being from Chicago I felt it only appropriate to go pay our respect and dance our asses off for DJ Sneak!!  Forced to either skip a lot or bounce around, we made rounds: Maya Jane Coles killed her DEMF debut with excellent style, Wolf + Lamb which was short lived for us but had a great vibe and received stellar fan reviews, Maceo Plex pumped the crowd up with some deep future funky bass hybrid and comical sampling at one point from a Cheech and Chong skit, legend Josh Wink lit up the Main Stage ending with a tribute to Beastie Boys he played Brass Monkey, Hot Natured (Jamie Jones and Lee Foss) if you haven’t seen them SEE THEM, Marco Carola bringing in the big techno sound to set up for the amazing tech house master Loco Dice who was welcomed to the stage by Ice-T and wife Coco, and we finished off the night with another amazing set by Claude Vonstroke dropping that new Justin Martin – Don’t Go (Leroy Peppers remix) which turned out to be the talk of the town after his set.

Having to go home on Monday morning instead of getting to stay for the final day of Movement hurt my heart more than my legs and feet could ever hurt, but my body was not complaining about getting to lay down.  After it all I have to admit, Detroit does not mess around.

Ice-T and Coco introducing Loco Dice at Movement: Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival!